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In 2015, the two international top journals Environmental Microbiology and Scientific Reports published the original research results of He Yawen’s team from School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, SJTU that Xanthomonas produces a novel type of quorum sensing (QS) signal DSF to communicate with each other. In the two studies, the authors characterized the structural diversity of DSF-family QS signals, elucidated their biosynthetic mechanisms and biosynthetic precursors. They found a naturally occurring DSF signals turnover system in Xanthomonas and elucidated how Xanthomonas senses the cell population to exit QS phase by inducing the expression of rpfB-depdendent signal turnover system. These findings further our understanding of Xanthomonas pathgenesis and provide clues to design biological control methods to prevent the infection. The first authors of the two papers are respectively Dr. Zhou Lian and PhD student Wang Xing-Yu.